What about command structure - when several brigades respond to an event, how does it get determined who is in charge? First on scene? What about when it's a "complex event" with different kinds of responders, eg a shooter in a burning building or a train crash with multiple victims?

@ffj - thank you for the detailed responses (to my questions and others). The problems with the public's expectations sound familiar. Here, the average arrival time for a professional brigade on scene is a little under 9 minutes (there is a lot of variation in a sparsely populated country with a few...

I have some questions too. Feel free to get to them whenever you feel like it or leave them hanging. 1. I understand the fire departments in the US are normally tied to municipal or county governments. How is response across borders arranged if/when needed? Is responding to a fire in a neighbouring ...

insert <Obligatory comment about winter not being that bad and you can still go outside and have fun.> Or perhaps some perspective :) Edit: or another piece of perspective -- be happy you're not working any more. You probably have enough experience operating pumps and fire hoses in sub-zero conditi...

people who need work - the structure, being told what to do, the automatic socializing This is no scientific observation, but it seems to me that most of this need is instilled in people through the education system. If all of what you described above were to happen, the training camps we call scho...

It definitely wouldn't hurt the popularity of your journal if you took this on and shared the process:) Is there a way you could just unload it to a company that specializes in selling them? I understand it's a thing in the US nowadays. This is something you can probably find out before hand (i.e. a...

Some other influencing factors to consider (all of which are probably quite hard to find reliable data for):
- percentage of income that can (legally) be sheltered from taxes for retirement
- inflation
- housing costs (prices, rents) relative to income

Will you actually have to pay the 24% when you withdraw? Is there something like the UK's personal allowance (tax free yearly limit) that would let you get to it tax free if withdrawn slowly enough? Otherwise it doesn't seem to make much sense - you just lock up your money for no apparent benefit. I...

Recently started using Goodreads and found it quite useful for developing a running backlog of interesting stuff to read. It also inspired me to finish a few books I'd been in the middle of for a while (including what I think was the 3rd circle since publication with the ERE book). I occasionally ta...

In your equipment categories, here is what I've been using for the past few years in various conditions all over Europe (let's say latitudes spanning from 42 to 67 degrees N, elevation to 1500m). I can recommend this stuff based on my experience and they are priced reasonably. Should be quite widely...

I imagine between the income tax and social tax, I will probably only take only 6/10 or 1/2 my pay home with me. 6/10 is about right. Depends, but not too much (taxes are mostly flat). There is a difference between the gross pay in your contract and total expense for the employer, since most of the...

Costco is not really relevant here, because as you said, "the idea is to own the means of production for the things you consume". Thus it would make more sense to mostly invest in the companies whose stuff you actually buy (let's say JNJ, KHC, local/regional farm coop ...). The supermarket's margins...

Please carry on and make this my favourite journal. You are right about the land tax. It is only based on the assessed value of the land multiplied by the rate set by the municipality. Furthermore, the values have not been reassessed since 2001 (they're talking about it now). You also get a break fo...

Given what @Farm_or had to say about his bonfire I can assure you that the buildings in Europe may be older but they are not as exciting as some of your old building are! I guess you wouldn't really know until you tried burning one down. ;) Haha, indeed http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-38430671

I like Fjällräven's G-1000 for pants. It's basically just polyester+cotton, but the quality makes it very comfortable for a wide variety of conditions. Dries quickly, windproof, breathes etc. I have been wearing my one pair at least a few times weekly for about 4 years, no sign of wear. They have a ...

I don't have problems with receding hair, so I'm not equipped to understand why one would want to hide it. A complete buzz cut is probably the easiest to do, most suitable for any kind of environment and the hardest to mess up doing it on your own. I discovered that when I lost the numbered guards f...